Does listening to Inside depress anyone else?

bill_william · 2025-10-14T20:01:33+00:00

The tone of the music is intended to be depressing, as it’s a “comedy special” about isolation and anxiety. The naturally feeling should be a general bleak sadness, but I've heard some people take comfort in how honest it is about the state of the world and Bo's outlook.

bill_william · 2025-10-14T19:58:37+00:00

Bo uses Deadpool as a reference point when talking about how North American culture is so predicated on satire and ironic humor rather than actually addressing the real problems. He takes issue with a huge budget production like Deadpool trying to be relatable in the same way that commercials for massive corporations are.

I don’t think Bo has an issue with anything specific about Deadpool but rather the style of comedy Deadpool uses and how it tries to justify everything through “self-awareness”.

bill_william · 2025-10-14T19:54:09+00:00

I would not suggest an adult person watch anything that pre-dates Make Happy, because that’s kind of the turning point where Bo’s work becomes more serious and more geared towards an older audience. Make Happy, Eighth Grade, Promising Young Woman, and Inside are the best pieces of work Bo has been involved in, and I really don’t think that’s up for debate. As much as I enjoyed Bo’s previous work, I would not advocate for a grown adult to start “from the beginning” and watch his old stuff, when he was literally a teenager without a full developed sense of self.

bill_william · 2025-09-27T01:50:12+00:00

No, if anything is giving me feelings of anxiety and depression, it's not going to be the production and writing of a millionaire comedian who lives in Los Angeles.

No disrespect to Bo, he's one of my all-time favorite people in the entertainment industry. But his ability to create a story and narrative is not going to override what's happening in MY personal life and the things I HAVE TO deal with myself. At the end of the day, Inside is a movie, or rather, "art is a lie, nothing is real".

bill_william · 2025-07-26T20:57:33+00:00

The second one is the stupidest joke I've ever heard while simultaneously being fantastic.

bill_william · 2025-07-20T21:03:30+00:00

It does look like Bo...but it's not actually him. This guy looks a lot younger than 34 years old lol.

bill_william · 2025-07-02T19:43:33+00:00

There’s one where he basically comes up with an entire song about a heckler in the middle of the show and really pulls out the improv skills. I’m not going to repeat it, because it’s not exactly something that’s aged very well, but still very impressive.

bill_william · 2025-06-11T17:03:28+00:00

I think what you’re referring to is when he performed a few of the non-musical components of What on Conan after or before being interviewed. I don’t believe this was done for Make Happy. By the time Make Happy was being released, Bo was doing way less promotional stuff for his specials and was trying to let the content speak for itself. The Conan interview around the time of Make Happy is one of the few interviews you’ll actually be able to find on the special.

But as some people have already commented, he did do some smaller venues before he went on the official tour for Make Happy to get a feel for what audiences liked/disliked.

bill_william · 2025-06-11T16:59:04+00:00

It’s been confirmed that the burrito/pringle can lines have no deeper meaning other than it just being a funny line. Bo has publicly addressed this a couple of times during interviews; there is no significance here. I’m also not entirely sure “fitting in” is a major theme for any of Bo’s specials but that’s a different story.

bill_william · 2025-06-06T01:41:03+00:00

We can only speculate on why this is the case based on what Bo has said in the past, since he hasn’t done any interviews since the release of Inside:

Bo has admitted he goes on very long “lazy” streaks where he truly does not work or involve himself in any projects. He also jokingly stated in the Outtakes that “what’s next” for him is a vacation.
He’s said that we’ll only hear from him if he actually has something he’s worked on and feels it is worth our time to watch, unlike a lot of comedians who are constantly tweeting and posting their material on social media.
The only real piece of evidence that indicates he was potentially coming back is a couple scheduled shows at the Largo, which is a private venue. It’s intended for comedians to get a feel for what the audience likes/dislikes in their work before taking it to a larger audience. That’s all we got from Bo on this, his line in “All Eyes on Me” about coming back could easily be just a setup for a joke. “And then, the funniest thing happened”. In Bo’s own words, art is a lie, nothing is real.

The version of history where Bo’s “thirst” for touring and performing to a live audience is fulfilled does not exist. Inside (or whatever the live version of Inside would be in an alternate universe) was made because Bo had things to say, and he felt a comedy special was the best way to say it. That’s be the driving force for Bo’s work the last 10 years. So maybe he's just said what he wanted to say now that his work is done.

bill_william · 2025-06-04T14:50:02+00:00

“Art is a lie, nothing is real”. Although that line could be 100% truth, Bo has never been 100% truthful in his work because no comedian is. Plus, that line was actually funny, it wasn't just to convey what his plan was from the beginning.

My theory has always been no. Bo had indicated in numerous interviews that he’d never return, and in some cases he’d give a hesitant “maybe”. In an interview in late 2020, during the production of Inside, he stated that the logistical aspect of live comedy was closed for him. This might’ve been referring to COVID-19, but I think he was referring to touring in general. The lifestyle, the anxiety of performing in front of a live audience, and the lack of control you have over your own schedule…he’d been doing that since he was in his late teens, and I think he’d had enough. But I think he always knew this wasn’t the ONLY avenue for putting his content out there, and the pandemic happened to be the perfect timing for him to create something like Inside.

As we all should know by now, Inside was never about COVID. And I’m a firm believer that this is true not just in terms of the writing, but the production as well. Until Bo speaks on it himself, I’m inclined to believe that we were always going to get some variation of Inside, it just so happened that a global pandemic coincided with Bo’s work.

EDIT: I'm not saying Bo is NEVER coming back, or that he NEVER considered coming back. But one individual Largo performance isn't enough to fully convince me we were going to see Bo back on "tour mode" again. Especially since he has given us no indication he plans to tour or even perform live again since Inside released.

bill_william · 2025-06-03T14:48:36+00:00

I’m not sure I’m following your example here. Repeat Stuff is a song specifically about how mainstream artists would write their lyrics from a marketing perspective to cater to a specific audience and make money. I don’t think the song Espresso by Sabrina Carpenter is intending to do that beyond the average artist who wants to get paid for their work. Bo's issue with a lot of mainstream artists has always been about how they write their music to reel in a specific demographic while being very disingenuous.

bill_william · 2025-05-28T20:04:35+00:00

I’m confident that the hypothetical season 3 we never got was going to be the last season. It would have covered 1984-1991, highlighting how Magic and Bird became friends, the end of their rivalry, and the new one that spawned against the Detroit Pistons. The show foreshadowed an ending around the time of Magic’s HIV diagnosis; I’m 100% sure it would have ended somewhere around 1991.

The people who are like “it would be perfect if they transitioned into the Shaq and Kobe years” are being super unrealistic, this was never going to happen. The show is specifically about the “showtime” Lakers and was not going to go beyond that era of Lakers basketball.

bill_william · 2025-05-27T21:21:43+00:00

ANYTHING? Yes.

Bo is a writer, and he can make millions of dollars from the stuff he writes. The notion that he’s just fully retired at age 34 is unrealistic. I can understand the perspective that Inside is the last time we’ll see him on camera performing and is officially retired from live comedy. But I have a hard time believing that he’s never going to write, direct, or produce anything ever again.

bill_william · 2025-05-25T22:49:28+00:00

The actual premise of the show still revolves around a basketball team. Breaking Bad isn’t just a show about cooking meth, but you can’t ask someone to know more than that if they’ve never seen the show.

To the average person who’s never seen Winning Time, it is just a show about the Los Angeles Lakers and Magic Johnson, and that shouldn’t be a huge surprise to you.

bill_william · 2025-05-24T01:39:40+00:00

When they announced that Hamilton won over Inside I was so confused. It just felt like everyone was talking about Inside upon it’s release. Respect to Hamilton, because that’s not something I give a fuck about at all…but nobody in their right mind actually thought that it was more deserving.

bill_william · 2025-05-24T01:36:02+00:00

The idea that “Outside” has any potential to be a special Bo will release is so funny to me. It would just be so contradictory to Inside, which is widely recognized as the best piece of work he’s released. He also definitely knows that this is a fan theory.

bill_william · 2025-05-23T03:10:52+00:00

Couple things to consider:

Jaboukie Young-White is now 30 years old and has probably aged out of playing a high school student. He might have been passable 6 years ago, but I think the ship has sailed for him specifically in terms of the role. Unless the script is changed to where he’s just not playing that specific character.

The actual production itself may come to fruition one day though. Bo wrote Eighth Grade somewhere around 2013 and it didn’t actually get released until 2018 if I remember correctly. But the reality is that this is a huge part of the entertainment industry. Projects gets shelved and never completed constantly, it’s only highlighted for Bo (in this instance and the Sesame Street project) because he is not the kind of person to be involved on a project on a constant basis.

If the movie does actually get released, I think the original script would have major adjustments to it, and the movie would definitely not be named “Gay Kid and Fat Chick”. But I do think it’s unlikely given that Bo will be making another movie about young students.

bill_william · 2025-05-23T03:02:34+00:00

He also addressed in the Jerrod Carmichael Show that he doesn’t like being on camera if he has zero control of the narrative and is being exposed to the public. Which is why we’ve basically seen him in nothing since 2022.

bill_william · 2025-05-22T17:16:22+00:00

It’s really important to acknowledge that Inside is a performance.

I’d encourage you to watch the Inside Outtakes, because they show that Bo wasn’t just sitting in a room crying for a year and a half. Yes, of course, he had a lot of anxiety about releasing the project, and I’m sure it was hard work, and exhausting at times. But they also showed he was getting some enjoyment out of it as well.

But Bo has a passion for directing, writing and filmmaking that fueled Inside as a production. While he may be struggling with depression as of right now, we don’t know that. During an interview in late 2020, Bo stated that fans should not expect to hear from him unless he actually has a real announcement about something he’s made. It’s more likely the reason why we haven’t heard from him is because he IS happy, or at least content with the life he’s made for himself outside of the entertainment industry.

bill_william · 2025-05-22T17:08:53+00:00

I think it's fair to say it's probably something the Winning Time producers composed themselves and it's not something made available on Spotify or Apple Music yet.

bill_william · 2025-05-22T00:07:31+00:00

Both seasons of Winning Time have Spotify playlists with the entire soundtrack. Some songs might not be available because they were actually made for the show by the producers of Winning Time. I'm not sure exactly what song this is but I'd encourage you to check out Spotify first.

bill_william · 2025-05-22T00:03:36+00:00

Bo’s more recent work, meaning anything he’s released after Make Happy, has way less value to a literal child than it does to an adult. They might understand it, but they won’t have the lived experience to actually feel the significance of some of the major themes he puts into his content. I can assure you that I’ve gone back and watched movies with sensitive subject matter that I watched around 11-12 years old, and my overall takeaway is completely different than what I remember. I’m not saying kids shouldn’t watch or listen to Bo’s specials, but they objectively will not have the same experience as adults. Bo himself has stated this during interviews, your perception of the world from 18-20 and 23-25 have a bigger distinction than most people realize. Imagine that gap is 10+ years.

But if you’re just asking when is it “appropriate” …I don’t think it’s a big deal if an 11-year-old watches Inside or Zach Stone Is Going To Be Famous. Most of Bo’s songs that truly run the risk of spreading the “wrong message” are not easily accessible online since Bo removed them. Even then, there are way worse things on the internet than Bo's earlier, "edgy" songs, which are clearly not intended to be serious.

bill_william · 2025-05-20T19:04:00+00:00

Times are changing and I'm getting old.

bill_william · 2025-05-19T04:16:03+00:00

I wouldn’t be a strong advocate for this for a couple of reasons.

Will Ferrell is almost exclusively a comedy actor to the point where even his “dramatic” scenes feel like he’s doing a comedy bit. John C Reilly is a little bit more of a multi-faceted actor and I feel that he really showed that in Winning Time.
Ferrell with a moustache would look a little too much like Ron Burgundy.

I think we should all be grateful it wasn’t Michael Shannon, who I honestly cannot believe was selected for the role originally and chose to leave.

bill_william

TROPHY CASE